Instructional Media Center

When you have serious research to do, you don't want to deal with paid-for-placement search results! Learn about where to go for the best information.

Check out these lists & descriptions of other Search Engines:

• Learn How to Choose a Search Engine (including links) from University Libraries, University at Albany, State University of New York
• All Search Engines
• Beacoup Links 2000+ catagorized list of specialty and international search engines or directories, a Webmaster favorite.
• Search Engine Watch
• Librarians' Index to the Internet: other librarian's directories of great links for every topic.
• Encyclopedia Britannica Site: with Internet Guide and Advanced Search Engine
• Ramapo Public Library Search Engine
• Oxford University Library's help with Search Engine choices.

Some Popular Search Engines:

• Google
• AltaVista - try the Advanced Search using Boohlean terms to fine-tune your keywords. Click on "Advanced Search" on the Alta Vista homepage. Then click on "Terms" to learn about the Boolean expressions to use, e.g. AND, OR, NEAR, * , or parenthesis to bracket off combinations.
• Ask Jeeves
• Google
• Yahoo
• MetaCrawler
• MSN's Encarta
• WebCrawler

Education-Specific Search Engines:

• How Things Work: enter a keyword (like battery) and the database will produce information on how it works.
• Apple Learing Interchange: for high school level subject area searches.
• SCORE (Schools of California Online Resource for Education) - Connecting California's Classrooms to the World
• Oracle's Think Quest: Created for Students by Students
• Kid's Click: web searching for kids by Librarians
• SBC Knowledge Network & Filimentality 
• The Encyclopedia Britannica  
• Guide for Writing Research Papers, Humanities Dept. Capitol Community College, Hartford, Conn.
• Innovative Public Libraries Online
• Solano Public Libraries
• The High School Hub: several subject areas.
• The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) with an extensive database.
• Search System's Public Records Databases: More than 32,800 free searchable public records databases on the Internet!
• First Government: Official US Government Web Search Engine
• Free Home: Federal Resource for Educational Searching
• Library of Congress OnLine Catalog
• British Library's Manuscripts Catalog
• Repositories of Primary Resources: "listing of over 5,000 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar."
• Consumer & Patient Health Information Section (CPHIS): for links to what you may be researching on health questions.
• World Law Direct is a good place to research questions about the law.